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The James Gunn sci-fi adventure is just the latest in a recent spate of surprisingly leggy hits that benefited from opening dates well outside the conventional blockbuster season. As the recent date change for Warner Bros.’ (Time Warner Inc.) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (gah… that title!) shows, studios are starting to notice that not only is there the potential to debut major blockbusters outside of what was once “prime” release dates, it might actually work to their advantage to do so.

The top three domestic grossers of the year are Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy ($260m and counting), Disney’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($259m), and Warner Bros.’ The LEGO Movie ($257m). Those three films opened, respectively, on August 1st, April 4th, and February 7th of this year. What’s also notable is that all three films didn’t just secure rock-solid opening weekends ($94m, $95m, and $69m respectively), but had genuine legs built on both word-of-mouth and a relatively sparse playing field.